N.F. Smith & Associates

N.F. Smith & Associates, also known as Smith, or Smith & Associates, is an independent distributor of electronic components and semiconductors headquartered in Houston, Texas.

History

In 1984, brothers Robert and Leland Ackerley founded Smith, which is now the largest independent distributor of electronic components and ranks 6th among all global distributors, in the semiconductor and electronic components industry.

The 1990s saw marked growth for the company. In 1992, Smith's annual sales were $30 million; by 1998, they had topped $470 million due to the company's expansion of its business into new regions, industries, and service offerings. In 1997, the company moved into its new 60,000 sq. ft. headquarters in Houston, followed by the opening of its first major international office in Hong Kong that same year. Smith established a European presence with the opening of its Amsterdam office in 1999.

In 2000, the company completed construction of a 15,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Houston to expand its ability to handle OEM and CEM consignment and excess inventories. Smith opened offices in Seoul, Silicon Valley, and Guadalajara in 2000, followed by office openings in New York in 2003 and Shanghai in 2004.

In 2010, the company completed construction of an enhanced, in-house, anti-counterfeit laboratory at its headquarters. Smith relocated the laboratory to a 57,199 sq. ft. operational facility in November 2014.

The company opened its 9th physical trading office in Shenzhen, China in 2008, adding Taipei in 2011, Austin in 2013, Penang in 2014, Bangalore in 2015, and Cluj-Napoca, Munich, and Beijing in 2017, Berlin in 2021, and London in 2022.

Products and Sourcing

Smith sources and distributes active, passive, and electromechanical IC components, as well as computer products and peripherals such as HDDs, processors, memory modules, video cards, CPUs - both obsolete and in-production parts. It serves customers in a broad range of industries, including consumer electronics, enterprise electronics, server hardware, automotive, telecommunications, medical, oil and gas, energy, and aeronautics and defense.

Services

Over time, the company expanded on the shortage sourcing that characterized its earliest business model. Services offered include inventory management programs such as VMI or EOL models, third-party purchasing, excess inventory management, IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) and secure data erasure, HDD & SSD services, rework, component recovery, reverse logistics, and kitting.

Sustainability

Since 2011, Smith has been “committed to work toward becoming a climate neutral, zero waste-to-landfill distributor.”

Smith began placing a heavy corporate emphasis on sustainability in 2008, when an ISO 14001 audit revealed deficiencies in the company's environmental program. Smith used these results as a catalyst to undertake improvements, including switching out lighting, using only 100% recycled packaging for shipments, and focusing on reducing energy consumption.

On April 8, 2012, Smith was named Overall Winner: Greatest Implementation of Green Building Innovations in the City of Houston's 2011 Green Office Challenge, the nation's largest Green Office Challenge for 2011. Smith's headquarters have been certified to ISO 14001 since 2005 and to R2 since 2015.